Strong performances in the financial services, green energy and digital sectors helped Bristol-headquartered law firm TLT achieve a 6.8% increase in annual revenues to £87.6m.
While the rate of increase was down on the previous year – when the firm returned to double-digit growth with 10% – it was above that of 2015/16 when turnover ticked up by 4%. 
TLT said the latest figure – for the 2018/19 financial year – continued its “strong record of growth” and represented a near 50% increase in revenues over the past five years. It also said it expects revenues to pass £100m “during the next phase of its development”.
This year’s performance was underpinned by success in several of its core areas of sector specialism, it said.
In financial services, there was continued growth in demand for its disputes and investigations services, alongside activity related to open banking, cyber and financial crime.
Other significant contributors were public sector panel appointments for central and local government, electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure and energy storage projects along with a growing portfolio of clients and work in the payments and digital space.
The firm also continued to grow its partner and lawyer teams with 13 lateral partner arrivals and four internal partner promotions. It also grew its team in Scotland with the acquisition of Glasgow-based specialist real estate firm Leslie Wolfson.
TLT managing partner David Pester, pictured, who is serving his sixth term in the role and will lead the firm until at least next year, said: “We are winning market share in a competitive environment with a clear, consistent and client-led approach.
“This means building sector expertise. It also means being creative and agile in our approach; collaborating with others where needed to deliver for our clients.
“Looking forward, we will continue to build scale where that delivers value and access to expertise that clients tell us they need.”
He said key to this was its work to improve legal service delivery through its Future Law programme – which was launched last autumn with a £500,000 investment fund to drive change more rapidly in the way it delivers legal services and products to clients – as well as the development of strategic international alliances to support clients on cross-border matters.
“Through continued investment to increase our market share of UK work, we anticipate revenues well in excess of £100m during the next phase of our development,” Mr Pester added.
As part of the Future Law programme, TLT launched its first foray into consulting with a telecoms regulatory consulting service led by former BT consumer regulatory affairs director Stuart Murray. It also launched a partnership with document automation system firm Clarilis to deliver automated document and contract creation, adding to its end-to-end contracts as a service platform alongside its combined intelligence contract review tool TLT LegalSifter.
TLT employs more than 100 partners and around 1,000 people across its offices in Bristol, London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast.
